PotterCat Warz: The Beginning
by AliuIce0814
Summary: You know PotterCat Warz, the story of two ThunderClan cats and their friends as their forest home is invaded by strange cats. But what of the missing apprentice years? This chronicles Amberkit's struggle to listen to StarClan and become a legend...R&R!
1. Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION—SKIP IF YOU'VE READ _POTTERCAT WARZ_

Icey: Hey, y'all! I'm Icey, and I'm just one of the four authors of the _Warriors_ crossover fanfiction _PotterCat Warz. _For nearly two years, my three sisters (Sagey, Taffy, and Star) and I have devoted our time and talent, however meager they may be, to creating a world where humans become cats and battle to keep the lives they've made for themselves. You can read _PCW_ by clicking on my screen name and following the link to my stories at the bottom of the profile. (For the short version that you need to know in order to read this fic, go down two paragraphs on this page.)

This is the story, however, of the two main characters as kits. Amberkit, Bluekit, and their brother are Bramblestar's children with Squirrelflight. Firestar died moons ago, and the events in _Power of Three _never occurred. The first two _Warriors_ series are adhered to.

_PCW_ begins as Lionkit, younger brother of Amberkit and Bluemint, dies on the Thunderpath after he and his sisters slipped out of camp unchecked. Amberkit's right paw is mangled, and she would have died if a mysterious RiverClan kit had not spoken to her in the limbo between death and life and convinced her to cross back to the forest.

Amberkit was adventurous before the monster took her brother's life, but she's subdued as this fanfiction begins. She still secretly blames herself for Lionkit's death. More prominent in her mind, however, is her injury. She can barely walk. The kit who could barely wait to be a warrior might be confined to the camp forever.

So, you have three choices. You could click the back button and escape if you're not interested in the story—which is fine, as long as you don't flame me in the process;

You could click my screen name and read what's posted thus far of PotterCat Warz, then come back here;

Or, hopefully most likely, you could click the button that leads you onward to Amberkit's story.

It's your choice, after all.

Love y'all,

Icey


	2. The Dream

Icey: Chapter one UP!

Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the _Warriors _franchise.

"_I do not try to dance better than anyone else. _

_I only try to dance better than myself."_

_-_Mikhail Baryshnikov

**POTTERCAT WARZ: THE BEGINNING**

**CHAPTER ONE**

**THE DREAM**

Amberkit was dreaming.

In her dream, she was bounding along the forest floor with several other cats leaping to catch up with her. She glanced down at her feet and nearly stumbled in shock. _Her front paw wasn't lame!  
_A warrior suddenly caught up with Amberkit and ran alongside her. "Amberstar, RiverClan is crossing the boundaries by the old Thunderpath again!"

_I'm the leader!  
_"Send Mara to speak with Star. She's always been good at swaying RiverClan to our side. Until then, send a patrol out to the border, and don't leave until Mara comes back or RiverClan makes a move!"

Amberkit had no idea what names she had just spoken, or why she had even chosen to say them, but they obviously made sense to the warrior. The other cat nodded and veered off into a different part of the forest.

Amberkit's dream self was just about to jump across a stream when something prodded her in the side. She lost her balance with a shriek—

—and woke to find a familiar blue tabby face peering at her anxiously.

"Bluekit!" Amberkit yelped indignantly. She scrambled to her paws, tripped over a scrap of moss as her lame paw gave out, and fell to the nursery floor with a grunt. "What was that for?"

"I'm sorry, sissy!" Bluekit apologized. "I just…" She glanced around and lowered her voice to a whisper. "You were _talking_," she mumbled uncomfortably.

"Oh, all right, then. I'm not too mad. It was a really good dream, though."

Bluekit grinned and butted heads with her sister. "Well, you're awake now, sleepyhead! Come outside and see how much it rained last night. It looks like the camp is going to float away!"

Amberkit's smile faded as her sister disappeared through the bramble entrance. Her heart twisted as she stared at her mangled forepaw. It had only been a dream after all.

_I'll never be a warrior._

Love it? Hate it? Please read and review(constructive criticism only, please and thank you)!

Love y'all,

Icey


	3. Gone!

Icey: chapter two UP!

Disclaimer: As per usual, I only own my own life and two psychotic cats. I wouldn't want to claim the cats, though.

"_Perhaps it was good for me to endure all this suffering, so that I may be more understanding and tolerant of man."_

_-Ask Alice Anonymous_

**POTTERCAT WARZ: THE BEGINNING**

**CHAPTER TWO**

**GONE!**

"Amberkit!"

The dark tabby kit sighed as Bluekit called her name again.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! You're so impatient!" She scrambled to her paws and limped into the foggy morning.

Bluemint had been right; the camp _was _swamped. Whiteflower was almost as brown as Amberkit as she dragged herself out of a mud puddle.

"You okay, Whiteflower?" Amberkit asked cautiously as the shivering she-cat staggered towards the fresh-kill pile. The she-cat all but ignored her. She mumbled a few choice words under her breath instead and tore into a rabbit.

"Hi, Amberkit!"

Amberkit jumped slightly and almost slid into Brightheart. The one-eyed she-cat gave her a friendly smile and said, "Your paw looks really good today, Amberkit! How are you feeling?"  
Amberkit stifled a groan. She knew the older cat meant well; after all, Brightheart herself had battled her own scars for moons. Still, it was more than a tad annoying to be asked the same question day after day. _Hmm…what should I say today? I'm running out of funny things to tell her…Aha!  
_"I'm wet," Amberkit announced truthfully. "I'm really wet."

Brightheart laughed and gave the kit a friendly, albeit soggy, nuzzle on the head. "I think Bluekit wants to talk to you, little one."  
"She can wait. Where's Mama?" Amberkit asked uncertainly.

Brightheart cocked her head for a moment in thought. "I think she went on dawn patrol. She actually should be back by now…Oh, well. Your father was on patrol, too. Maybe they got sidetracked."  
Amberkit wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Like how Whiteflower and Spiderleg always get distracted?"

Brightheart gave another purr of amusement. "Something like that."  
"All right, that's something I don't want to think about. I'd rather talk to Bluemint than think about that!" Amberkit scurried in her sister's direction. Her lame paw left a rut in the mud where she had dragged it. Brightheart sighed sadly as she watched the kit go.

"What took you so long?" Bluekit demanded. "The elders were telling amazing stories!"

Amberkit stifled a snort. "You know how Brightheart always asks how I'm feeling. Anyway, the elders always tell the same stories."

Bluekit whacked her sister over the head with one paw. "Respect your elders!" she scolded in a squeaky imitation of their mother. "They do not always tell the same stories! They pass on wisdom and truth and—and—"

"Yeah?" Amberkit asked in amusement.

"—and something like that!" Bluekit fell dramatically right into a pile of mud, which splashed all over Dustpelt. The elderly tom growled a warning at the kits.

"Ooh!" Bluekit squealed. "You're not Dustpelt anymore. You're Mudpelt!"

Amberkit stifled a giggle as Dustpelt sputtered indignantly at Bluekit. "Why, you impertinent little—"

All three cats jumped as Longtail let out a warning yowl from his spot under a bush. The blind tom's ears were swiveled toward the camp entrance, and his nose was twitching as if he smelled prey.

"Longtail smells trouble, kits," Dustpelt growled. Bluekit shivered and hid behind Amberkit as an unearthly wail sounded from the camp entrance. Amberkit's claws in her whole paws were instinctively unsheathed as she knead the ground nervously.

Then Amberkit's stomach seemed to drop all the way through the earth as a familiar broad-shouldered tom staggered through the camp entrance. Bramblestar was covered in earth and blood, and dangling limply from his jaws was—

"MOMMY!"

sagey: why did you do that!?!  
icey: I love cliffhangers. You know I do.

Star: you're evil. You do know that, right?  
icey: *laughs diabolically*

Sagey: *runs away screaming in terror*

Love it? Hate it? Please read and review(constructive criticism only, please and thank you)!

Love y'all,

Icey


	4. Innocence Lost

Icey: next chapter now, so you won't murder me in my sleep for that awful cliffie. Heh heh heh.

Disclaimer: I own nothing save my own life and my two cats. Actually, you can have them if you want them…especially the Siamese…

"_I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me!"_

_-_Aragorn, son of Arathorn, _The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King_

**POTTERCAT WARZ: THE BEGINNING**

**CHAPTER THREE**

**INNOCENCE LOST**

Amberkit was frozen for a moment in stunned horror. She stared at her mother's battered body, silently willing the orange flanks to rise and fall. Bluekit vaulted over her sister and hurtled to Squirrelflight's side.

"Mama," Amberkit mumbled dazedly. She staggered sideways for a moment. Then her voice came back in a rush, and everything seemed to happen at once.

"Mama!" As Amberkit leapt towards her mother's body, her lame paw gave out and she collapsed sideways into the mud. She pushed herself onto her paws again and crawled to Squirrelflight's side. "Mama, no! Mom—please, no—Mama!"

"Amberkit," Bramblestar mumbled. "Amberkit, it won't help. She's—"

"She's NOT DEAD!" Amberkit whirled on her father. "You're lying! I can wake her up! Mama! Mom, Squirrelflight, please wake up. I'll let you wash me all the time and make me listen to Dustpelt's stories and everything, just please wake up!"

"Amberkit…"  
"I HATE YOU!"

"Amberkit, I tried to save her. Believe me, I tried!" Bramblestar pleaded.

"Like you tried with Lionkit? You're so stupid! You didn't even try! You just sat there and let her die! I know you did!" Amberkit gasped around her tears. Bramblestar's eyes flashed dangerously, but his daughter plunged onward.

"You're just like your dad. Just like Tigerstar, and I hope you end up like him, too!"

Amberkit caught a glimpse of the pained look on her father's face as she whirled away from the horrifying scene, but she ignored him as tears blurred her vision. She stumbled towards the nursery and fled to her den. After a few moments, comforting voices sounded above her head, but she slashed her unsheathed claws in their direction, and they soon left her to sink into an uneasy sleep.

Pagebreak

Amberkit blinked her eyes open sleepily to a rhythmic purring above her head. She relaxed as the familiar scent of ThunderClan washed over her. For a moment she thought she was burrowed in her nest alongside her brother, sister, and mother, but something in the rhythm of the purr was off, and she scrambled to her paws.

She found herself facing a blue tabby queen who had stars in her fur. It only took Amberkit a moment to realize she was facing a StarClan queen. A surge of anger shot through her.

"What're you doing here?"

"You need to rest, little kit. You've cried yourself to sleep," the queen said calmly.

Amberkit growled. "I don't need anything except my family back! You're the one who took them from me, you and the rest of all your StarClan buddies."

The anger left Amberkit as soon as she saw the powerful queen flinch slightly. "I'm sorry," Amberkit whispered. She buried her face in the queen's fur for a moment. "I don't mean to be so nasty," she mumbled into the tabby's flank. "I just miss…"  
"I understand," the queen murmured. "I felt that way many times in my lives."  
Amberkit nodded, then frowned. "Lives? Oh!" She looked the tabby up and down in awe. "You're Bluestar, aren't you?"

The long-dead leader dipped her head in acknowledgement. "I am."  
"You're very beautiful. I'm sure Bluekit will end up looking just like you," Amberkit whispered shyly. Then another, more urgent thought struck her.

"Bluestar, am I dead?"

The leader laughed softly. "Oh, not yet, Amberkit. Your Clan will need you as a warrior before long."

Amberkit shook her head. "I'm lame!"

Bluestar narrowed her eyes. "Why would that change anything?"

Amberkit cocked her head. "I'm confused."  
The leader laughed again. "Well, then, let's get you home so things will make more sense. You owe your father an apology," she added sharply.

Amberkit dropped her gaze. "I know, Bluestar. I was so angry, and I miss Mama so much already! I never meant what I told Bramblestar, though. I'll always love my dad, and he's nothing like Tigerstar, nothing!" the kit said fiercely.

"Oh, he is. He is Tigerstar as he was meant to be, a Tigerstar who uses his power for good," Bluestar murmured, almost to herself.

"Yeah, well, Dad's way cooler than Tiger-stink," Amberkit mumbled. Bluestar chuckled and gave Amberkit a lick on the head. "Tell Mom I love her!" Amberkit called as the starry cat faded away.

Immediately, Amberkit found herself back in her den. Bluekit was curled up by her side. She was sobbing softly in her sleep.

"I'll be right back, Bluekit. I have to do something for Bluestar," Amberkit whispered in case her sister was just faking sleep. Then she limped out of the den and made her way over to where her father was keeping vigil by his mate's cooling body.

"Dad?"

Bramblestar jumped and turned sharply to face his daughter. Amberkit swallowed at the fierce look on his face, but she forced herself to continue.

"Bramblestar, I didn't mean it. I love you, lots, and so does Bluemint. You're not like Tigerstar, either, not exactly. You're him like he was supposed to be," she whispered.

Bramblestar's face crumpled a little as tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. He nuzzled the top of his elder daughter's head to hide them.

"When did you learn so much?" he mumbled into the dark tabby fur that perfectly mirrored his own.

Amberkit stifled a watery chuckle at the thought of explaining _that_. "I guess I'm just really smart."

Bramblestar sighed and pulled back to look at his daughter. "I know you are, sweeting. Will you stay up for your mother with me?"

"I'll stay up with you," Amberkit promised. _I'll stay up with you for you, _she added to herself. _With Bluestar in StarClan with her, I think Mama will be okay. I just have to make sure the rest of us will be._

_But why did Bluestar say I'll be a warrior?_

Love it? Hate it? Please read and review(constructive criticism only, please and thank you)!

Love y'all,

Icey


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